I Escape to be Free
by Valasania the Pale
Summary: The Battle of Hogwarts left scars on many of those left behind. Lavender Brown, newly turned werewolf, is only one. How shall she find salvation from her inner-conflict?
**Hello to my lovely readers! I don't think I ever could have possibly imagined the positive response to Somnium Vitis I received – Well, no. That's a lie, actually. I did imagine such a response, but I certainly did not expect it.**

 **At any rate, this is a response to ThomasLight's story request – one involving Harry and Lavender Brown following the Battle of Hogwarts. Enjoy, dear readers!**

X_0_X

 _"_ _If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end; if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth; only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin, and in the end, despair."_

 _-C.S. Lewis_

 **Why, though, can I not seek comfort first – to dull the harsh ache of reality's scars – and then seek my truth?**

X_0_X

A flurry of memories, blurred by grief, swept across the mind of Lavender Brown, newly christened werewolf, as though they were a hurricane.

Rage flashed in the form of lightning across her thoughts, momentarily lighting up her mind with inescapable truth – truth she could not bear to face – before darkening under the force of her denial.

She felt her childhood hopes and wishes tossed around and flattened; crushed and splintered and left as fractured and brutalized remains of their former grandeur while reality crushed the little hope she could muster into the churned earth.

Hogwarts' halls were silent, and yet howled. The walls stood around her with stony countenances, but tracked her movements more accurately than any predator. The ceiling positioned unseen fangs just above her head.

In truth, Lavender did not know why she had returned like so many others. Dozens of Hogwarts students had clung to the castle, insistently repairing the mourning edifice with tender care, as though they were aged children fretting over their aged parents.

Lavender could feel the castle cry the same way she felt the moon's caress on her fur when it revealed itself on its brightest nights. It was yet another piece of debris to be flung around her ailing mindscape.

She often ran into students, accepting their pitying looks with all of the grace of a beaten dog, not truly understanding what she had done to deserve the abuse but taking the blow in the hopes that one day she would become one of them once again.

Save for a few, at least.

She was not the single soul afflicted with lycanthropy, following the battle. Su Li, tiny slip of a girl as she was, had contracted the curse shortly before Lavender had herself. They had spoken a few times about running together under the moonlight, but had never mustered the will to go.

Another boy from Ravenclaw, a second year who had slipped under the age restrictions, had run afoul of Greyback's pack. His scars ran across his face, arms, chest, and legs; red and angry and spiteful towards the world that had ruined him.

Still others treated them with dignity; the enlightened few who were free of a lifetime of prejudice or who knew her well enough to avoid it. She had received several uplifting letters from Parvati from where she and her family had retreated to India. Hermione Granger, her dorm-mate of six years, had sniffed and embraced the shattered girl. Adults. Teachers. Fellow students.

And Harry Potter, who walked straight into her as she wandered through the halls.

Harry Potter, the man who only had to scrutinize her face for a moment before he took her hand and guided her into a nearby classroom.

Sitting her down in an abandoned chair, he pulled one up across from her, sat down, and waited.

"You've done this before?" Her voice was unrecognizable to the former gossip, who had listened to it for years, day in and day out.

His darkened, haunted eyes regarded her with a careful, solid gaze, absent of pity. She could understand that. He wasn't condemned to life as a creature, but he'd seen and been through enough to equal their suffering.

He spoke. "My father's best friend – my uncle, really – was a werewolf. He spent his entire life coping with his condition. He fought it. He chained it. He embraced it, and in the end found peace with it. If there was one thing he regretted when he died, it was that he could define every moment of his life from his wolf. No matter what he did to it, his wolf had mastered him from the onset."

Lavender understood; didn't want to understand, but couldn't help but to do so. She could already feel her own wolf clawing at her subconscious; feeding the maelstrom that robbed her mind of the tranquility it had formerly possessed. She couldn't let it go, because it had sunk its teeth and claws deep into her.

Harry continued. "His finest hour was in marrying his wife, and fathering his son. Despite his own self-loathing holding him back and scaring the life out of him, he allowed himself to fall in love, to bring new life into the world, and to live beyond the wolf. Because, for that short time, he let go of his demon, he was happy. Because he was stronger than his fears, I now have a godson to cherish. Do you want to let yourself throw your happiness away, Lavender? Do you want to sacrifice your life on the altar of self-loathing?"

Lavender had never appreciated how persuasive her year-mate could be when roused. Her fear of the impending half-life before her was halted, if only for a short time.

Doubt reared its ugly head.

The alien voice put it to words; "But who could love me – could care for me now? How can I know that I can be loved if people avoid me for what I am?" Her voice cracked, finally reaching the heart of the matter.

And truly, that was her greatest question; one that could not be assuaged by platitudes or promises; the doubt that could not be quelled and excised by words alone.

May the tranquil moon bless him, Harry understood.

His lips met hers in a burst of warmth, neither insistent nor demanding but instead caring and gentle, countering the rapid, unsubtle burn of the wolf within her mind.

She returned his advance, meeting his cracked lips with her own, fighting down the urge to deepen and bruise and mar him. In time with each other, their tongues met and dueled in a short flurry, before exploring each other's mouths, massaging the tissues they found there.

They disengaged, shoving aside the chairs and embraced fully. Warm body met soft flesh as they lowered themselves to the ground; one mouth intent on giving the care and affection the other felt it no longer deserved.

As hands roamed, clothes began to disappear. Buttons were carefully undone – one after another – straps and laced were tenderly unwound and unstuck, and garments were slid slowly down pale flesh, exposing the flushed expanses.

Lavender wrapped her hand around Harry's neck, pressing her naked chest against his own hard muscles, squishing the supple flesh of her breasts against him as his hands encircled her waist.

His touches were obscenely gentle, and she reciprocated with determined fervor, not allowing an ounce of pain, anger, or possessiveness to mar this moment of supreme gratification. This was _her_ moment, not the wolf's.

An effeminate gasp escaped her lips into his mouth as he slid into her slick heat, the pleasurable sensation of his length stretching out her velvety depths causing her to shiver and moan.

Their movements were tender and unhurried; their hips came together in a slow, rhythmic pace, layering pleasure onto each other in favor of loafing it onto themselves. Heated flesh caressed soft skin as their desired release approached them at a happy stroll, lengthening the stay of their ecstasy as they climbed to their peaks.

Heat bloomed inside of Lavender. Her voice rang out in delight as she joined her partner in his release, recognizable to her for the first time in weeks. Her core continually gripped his length as they savored their orgasm to its final stages, before she bonelessly collapsed onto his chest, limp and satiated.

Her eyes, exhausted but filled with gratitude, met his emerald orbs. "Thank you Harry. This meant more to me than I think you realize."

He smiled back. "You aren't the only one with doubts. Sometimes, escape, even temporary, is the best solution before we can face the world again."

Her warm cheek rested against his chest as they basked in each other's presence. Morning, it seemed, would hold a brighter dawn than it had the day before.

X_0_X

 **There you have it. Not as long as Somnium Vitis, but I think this one has a better overall message to it. I have plans for a more smut-centric story next; I couldn't really get into that for this story since I'm so unfamiliar with Lavender's character. If I had tried to force this into a more passionate encounter like in SV, then it would have been fake, which I want to avoid.**

 **Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed! Please leave a review and PM me pairing requests if you want to see more content to your specific tastes.**

 **Farewell, and Have a Pleasant Afterglow!**

 **-Valasania the Pale**


End file.
